JAL reports increase in passengers over New Year holidays

The JAL Group said Monday that it carried a total of 404,681 passengers on its international flights and 1,499,986 passengers domestically during the 17-day New Year vacation period between Dec 21 and Jan 6.

Passenger count on JAL’s international routes went up 4.1% versus the same period last year, against a 3.2% increase in the number of available seats. Flights to and from every region, with the exception of China, were more than 82% full, resulting in an overall load factor of 82.4% on the Group’s international routes.

The number of passengers on domestic flights rose 5.8% while seat capacity was 1% less compared to in 2012. Overall domestic load factor improved 4 percentage points from last year to 67.7%. By region, there was notable increase in travels to Chugoku, Shikoku and Kyushu.

During this period, the JAL Group operated 19 additional international flights to Alaska, Honolulu and Palau, as well as 28 extra flights on various domestic routes.